Across the nation

At least two law enforcement officers were injured Monday during a clash with members of the Occupy movement who were at the state Capitol to protest a rally by a pro-white group.

The clash erupted in the afternoon as California Highway Patrol and Sacramento city police officers were escorting about 35 members of the South Africa Project to a parking garage following their protest outside the Capitol building.

About 50 members of Occupy Oakland began throwing cans and bottles at the South Africa group and at the officers. The Occupy members then rushed the officers as people with the pro-whites group rushed into the parking garage.

ROCKFORD, Mich.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Monday that Rick Santorum is ill-prepared to deal with the nation’s economic woes, calling his GOP rival a nice guy who never held a job in the private sector.

A day ahead of the crucial Michigan primary, Romney shifted his line of attack from the cultural issues and conservative rhetoric he used over the weekend and instead insisted that the former Pennsylvania senator doesn’t know how to create jobs.

“I understand why jobs go, why they come, I understand what happens to corporate profit, where it goes if the government takes it,” Romney told a crowd at the Byrne Electrical warehouse.

RICHMOND, Va.

The April 1 auction of more than 5,000 Titanic artifacts a century after the luxury liner’s sinking has stirred hundreds of interested calls, with some offering to add to the dazzling trove already plucked from the ocean floor.

Auctioneer Arlan Ettinger said his New York auction house, Guernsey’s Auctioneers & Brokers, has heard from some descendants of the more than 700 survivors, including one offer he describes as morbid: papers found on the floating body of a passenger after the sinking.

“Their relative was found floating and, when the body was recovered, papers were removed — passports and other documents,” he said. “That has stayed in the family’s hands and they offered it to us.”

ATLANTA

For the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear.

The surprising discovery of genetic fragments of a flu virus is the first well-documented report of it in the winged mammals. So far, scientists haven’t been able to grow it, and it’s not clear if — or how well — it spreads.

Flu bugs are common in humans, birds and pigs and have even been seen in dogs, horses, seals and whales, among others. About five years ago, Russian virologists claimed finding flu in bats, but they never offered evidence.

CLEVELAND

A bedridden Cleveland man was rescued by neighbors who saw smoke pouring from his two-story home and knew he wouldn’t be able to get out.

The man was not injured but was taken to a local hospital to be sure he was all right.

The Plain Dealer reports Monday that Lawrence Davis had just gotten home from work when he saw smoke at the house across the street. The 33-year-old Davis rounded up neighbors to help the bedridden man, knowing he couldn’t get out on his own.